Today during our class I was confronted with many issues pertaining to how I think of what classifies "reading." Very similar to what others seemed to express, I think that audiotapes of books provide some sort of literary experience; however I think much of what is gained during reading is lost when we simply listen to the words. For me, it is a very personal thing: as I read, actually seeing the words float by on the page forces me to acknowledge them. However, on a less personal note I think what is most lost when listening to texts is one's ability to have creative authorship. When I read I imagine my own characters (of course based off of the text), I have my own version of how the characters voices sound, and how their words interact with one another.

I feel like the remainder of the syllabus for Literary Kinds should flow smoothly from the first part. However, this might prove to a be a problem. We will be reading a Neil Gaiman graphic novel, so it would make sense to watch a movie of his. But this movie is not an adaptation of the graphic novel; it is an entirely different story. The same goes for Persepolis--we would be watching the movie, but not reading the graphic novel so we could compare the two and analyze how different media can affect the impact of a story.

Our conversation-beginning today about Alice as a "very sensible 7-yr-old, @ stage of development/education where the world appears completely explainable and unambiguous" reminded me strongly of the recent film adaptation of Where the Wild Things Are.

This weekend I watched Phoebe in Wonderland and after reading Alice in Wonderland it made so much more sense to me than it did the first time I saw it. I think that might say something about interpretations and parodies. At times it is helpful to watch the original to truly comprehend what is going on with the other version. The movie was so wonderful and I think it helped me understand Alice a little more. Sometimes while I was reading Alice it was difficult for me to follow all the nonsense and find the deeper meaning behind all the puns and parodies. Having an alternative film version put things in a better perspective for me.

 This post is sort of late, but I've been thinking about what we discussed in class last Thursday.  To me, it seems obvious that "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is a parody of "the quest."  Alice does so many things to try to advance herself in the world she has found herself in, but none of them really get her anywhere and she encounters many, many obstacles along the way.  She overcomes them, but where does she end up?  In the same place.  This is not to say that the story of Alice isn't a wonderful one, but none of her struggles seem worth it, and by the end of the book everything she's done seems so silly.

The openness and encouragement of exploration and conversation that exists in our classroom and online are, to me, this class's distinguishing characteristics. I (as is evident from how late this post is) have some growing still to do to take full advantage of this, but it's a fantastic environment that makes it possible for this growth to take place. I feel like this class is very well suited to thinking/working instead of formula-memorization (for writing and thinking). The class format is also pushing me to learn from others in the class as much as I learn from the material we study, which is a new idea in my education and seems pretty wonderful.